I stopped in Singapore, particularly interested to meet Shirin Rafie and Liz Liu , who had started a nature based education program for school children, named “Wild Dot”. Wild Dot includes a botanical inkmaking studio co-founded by Shirin Rafie and Liz Liu, tucked away in a suburban street. Since 2019–2020, they’ve made it their mission to explore, document, and craft natural colours from plants found across Southeast Asia. Their work goes beyond studio practice: through workshops, talks, community art programmes, educational painting kits, and exhibitions, they bring the stories behind each hue into the hands of people of all ages and work with schools.
Shirin and Liz in their studio
The studio itself is a treasure trove—a home base filled with jars of pigments and specimens from gardens, and a patio of dye plants in pots. I recorded and interview with them and found out about studies into Morinda Citrifolia, which in Singapore, like Darwin just pops up in Suburbia and is not used as a dye or even for medicinal purposes. I was interested to hear their views on Singaporese connection to plants and nature and that often it is very much for asthetic value but a sterilised or manicured version of nature contact and encouraged me to see Gardens by the Bay, a big spectacular attraction in glass to see what is valued most in the city.
